The Shi’ite Houthi rebels, who seized the Yemeni capital city of Sanaa earlier this month, is continuing to build on its recent victories, pushing to install a more favorable cabinet as a condition for leaving the capital.
Territorial victories are continuing alongside the political push, with the Houthis seizing the key Red Sea port city of Hudaydah and expanding territory that could end up being a de facto Houthi state in Yemen’s northwest.
Houthi fighters seized both Hudaydah and the town of Dhamar, south of Sanaa, without any reports of shots fired, reflecting just how in control of the region the rebels are.
The Yemeni government’s control doesn’t extend too far outside of the Sanaa region, which is where the Houthi gains are occurring, and the reality is that Yemen is quickly splintering into multiple territories.